Participating Tribes

Kom

The Kom are one of the Tibeto-Burman speaking Kuki tribes mainly found in Manipur, North-East India. They are scattered over all the districts of Manipur. They are a sub-tribe of Komrem/Komhrem. Even though they are referred as "Kom", among them they referred themselves as Kakom. Their origin is unclear as they were nomadic people till they entered Manipur. They entered Manipur through Tripura. Their clan names come into existence only when they came out of a cave. The location of the cave is believed to be somewhere in the borders of China. Shongthu, Saiche, Misai and Mirem were the leaders when they came out of the cave. The names of these leaders became the Clan names of the Kom people. Even though Telien and Mhangte did not take part in the cave incident, but they later became clan names. These people are referred as Kom by the British Raj. The present Koms are just a small percentage of the descendants of Shongthu, Saiche, Misai, Mirem, Telien and Mhangte. According to 2001 Census of India, the population of Kom is 14, 602.